SRU is delighted to announce that for the 2012/13 soccer year Neil Turnbull has agreed to join SRU as a boys team coach and also will assume the position of SRU Director of Goalkeeping. Josh Sterling, the SRU GM, "Neil is an incredible asset to further strengthen the SRU coaching staff, both as a specialist boys coach and also as our new Director of Goalkeeping, we are excited to welcome Neil for the new soccer season."

Neil has coached in Sonoma County for ten plus years, including working at SRU for 4 years (2002-2004) before moving to coach for Sonoma County Alliance for last 5 years (2006-2011). Neil is a semi-professional English soccer player, FA qualified coach and has specialized in goalkeeping. Neil is married with three children. He supports a Northern English soccer club called Middlesbrough FC and is desperately hoping they can make it back to the English Premier League in the near future (Neil is an optimist).

Neil is finishing his season with SCA and will be named as a new coach and Director of Goalkeeping for SRU for the 2012/13 year

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About the SRU Goalkeeping Program

This project was founded to create competitive Goalkeepers in the Northern California area and to prepare them to compete at the USA National Team, collegiate and local club team level. It is the fundamental objective of this project to create an ongoing program that will improve the competitive level of every goalkeeper trained.

Because a winning soccer team starts with an excellent goalie, it is SR United’s philosophy to develop players with all the physical, technical, physiological, and tactical skills needed to compete at the highest level possible. It is also our goal to develop a community of student players by teaching and instilling in them the basic values that lead to a successful and dignified life both on and off the soccer field.

Santa Rosa United offers a progressive program that has continuity from the very beginning stages through the advanced tactical stage, and which will also give greater purpose to the lives of these young people.

The process begins with the new player or keeper and will follow a basic stage developmental program aimed at encouraging athletic, social, and moral values as well as improving the specific needs and skills of a goalkeeper. This program will develop these skills based on the individual’s current skill level and potential.

This program represents a considerable commitment of our club and our families, both economically and organizationally. It could not be justified to only provide an unorganized recreational activity for children who would play soccer or as a simple distraction from the realities of the street and the daily exposure to social ills.

We are creating an avenue for every committed young person to become a great goalkeeper and for all our students to improve their overall soccer skills in a safe, organized, and well supervised environment. Equally important, we are assisting in the development of a valued and productive member of the community by instilling in them not only athletic prowess but also a good moral and ethical foundation.

This program will develop an individual’s athletic talents through the following means:

Acquire the basic knowledge of body coordination needed to play the position of Goalkeeper through a repetition of technical skills advancing from basic movements of Goalkeepers to more advanced techniques needed to compete at a higher level.

To understand and be able to execute the rules and fundamental strategies of the position of Goalkeeper.

To learn specific techniques and theories needed to play Goalkeeper at the highest level.

To be able to move and coordinate the body in such a manner as to play at the highest level.

Will learn sportsmanship and a sense of fair play through interaction with the competition and be able to interact with fellow players in a competitive yet fair manner.